rolled her eyes.
“Boss…hang on just a minute, okay?” Then she turned her pain into anger and lit into Adam. “It’s business, Adam, my business, which means it’s none of yours. I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself.”
“Who’s Buddy?”
Her face crumpled like a used napkin.
“My friend. He is…was…my friend. The man who wants me dead beat him to death, trying to find out where I was.”
Franklin took the phone from Sonora’s hands.
She was so surprised by his actions that she let him do it.
“Excuse me,” Franklin said. “I’m Sonora’s father, and whatever trouble she is in, we will help her deal with it.”
Sonora grabbed the phone away. “Boss! It’s me! Don’t pay any attention to him. I’ll be leaving here as soon as I can pack. I’m not going to have Garcia come looking for me here.”
Mynton was too stunned to follow her conversation.
“I thought you were raised in an orphanage.”
“I was, damn it, but—”
“Then how did you find your father?”
“It’s a long story,” she muttered.
“I don’t know what’s going on there,” Mynton said. “But think a minute. No one knows you have family, so there’s no one to look for. However, if you leave, how are you going to be sure that Garcia doesn’t find them in his quest to look for you?”
“Because I’ll find him first,” she snapped.
“Yeah, well, Buddy Allen might have given you an argument with that thought.”
Sonora reeled as if she’d been slapped.
“That’s not fair,” she mumbled, then swiped a shaky hand across her face. “I can’t think right now. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Promise?” Mynton asked. “Oh. Wait. You’re supposed to call a detective named Broyles with the Phoenix P.D. He’s working Buddy’s case.”
“Yes, all right,” she said, and then hung up.
For a moment, she stood with her head down and her shoulders shaking. Tears were rolling out of her eyes and down her face, but she wasn’t making a sound.
Adam waited silently until he could take no more.
“You’re not alone.”
She put a hand over her eyes and then turned away.
Franklin put a hand on her shoulder.
“You’re not alone,” he said, repeating Adam’s words.
She lifted her head, looking first at her father, then at Adam. Whatever might have been between them was over before it began.
“I can’t be here,” she said softly. “I will bring death to this place if I stay.”
Franklin waved his hand as if he was shooing a fly.
“Death is already here, daughter. It’s been here for months waiting for me to notice. Please, whatever is wrong, you must let us help you.”
“It’s DEA business,” she muttered. “I can’t get civilians involved in—”
Adam interrupted. “I spent twelve years with the army rangers. I was good at what I did. You’ll stay. We will help.”
“It is settled,” Franklin said.
Sonora was too overwhelmed to argue, and when they came to her and held her, she didn’t say no.
Chapter 8
Once the shock of the call and the trauma of the morning had been dealt with, Franklin went inside to rest, leaving Adam and Sonora alone. Normally, she would have been defensive with a man she hardly knew, but she wasn’t with Adam. She didn’t bother with trying to figure out why. She just took his presence as the comfort she desperately needed, and finally let herself grieve.
Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, and the sight hurt Adam’s heart. As they walked beyond the yard into the shade of the forest, little by little Adam drew out details of the relationship that had been between her and Buddy Allen. He wouldn’t let himself think about the spurts of jealousy that came and went as he listened to her talking about a man with whom she’d once been intimate. He didn’t want to admit, not even to himself, that he was envious of a dead man.
“So you dated Buddy for nine months. You must have some really good memories,” Adam said gently.
Tears finally spilled over and rolled down her face as she paused beneath a large oak.
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But all I can remember was constantly disappointing him. I was gone so much and he wanted more from the relationship than I was ever able to give.”
“He wanted to marry you?” Adam asked.
“Something like that,” Sonora said, then her voice broke. “And now he’s dead…he’s dead because of me. I told him my life was too complicated for commitments, but he wouldn’t listen.” She choked on a sob and then covered her face with her hands. “Oh. God, Adam, Garcia beat him to death. I can’t get that out of my head.”
Adam put his arms around her. Sonora stiffened. Accepting sympathy was as difficult for her to deal with as accepting advice. But he didn’t turn her loose and she didn’t pull away, and slowly, slowly, she began to relax. When that happened, the wall of her emotions crumbled. Before she knew it, she was sobbing.
“Yes, pretty lady…cry for your friend…and for yourself. Cry it all out,” Adam whispered.
And she did.
* * *
A day passed, and then another, until an entire week had come and gone since Sonora’s arrival. As per her father’s wishes, she’d checked in every day with Mynton, just so she would stay up-to-date on the investigations. She’d called the Phoenix detective as she’d been asked to do but had been unable to give him any information he didn’t already have.
She knew that after a possible sighting of Garcia in Amarillo, Wills and the task force had left Flagstaff to check it out, and upon arrival had gotten a positive ID. Problem was, by the time all of that had been confirmed, Garcia was long gone—destination unknown.
* * *
As for Miguel Garcia, it had taken big money and calling in some favors from an old friend of his father before he’d finally gotten some help. Now four of the drug cartel’s finest were combing the highways and the states bordering Texas and Oklahoma, trying to get a fix on the whereabouts of the missing DEA agent. Miguel had let it be known that it was worth a half million
